Authorities have linked a Brink's Security guard who went through the police academy and has applied to become a cop to three Orange County rapes.
And authorities fear suspected serial rapist Jose Luis Capacete, 39, of Baldwin Park, may have struck others besides the women sexually assaulted before August and on Christmas Eve in Santa Ana and on Jan. 7 in Garden Grove.
]
It was after the Dec. 24 rape that police found evidence that led them to search Capacete's home, draw an incriminating statement out of him and make an arrest, according to Santa Ana Police, who claim the search warrant also produced evidence from other female victims.
A 24-year-old woman who left a party to go to the store was walking along the 300 block of South Harbor Boulevard about 6 a.m. when she was grabbed by her hair from behind and forced into a van. She was driven to the parking lot behind a business in the 1600 block of North Harbor, where a man showed her a handgun and Taser, undressed her, bound her and raped her.
The man later pushed her, naked, out of the van and tossed her clothing on top of her. The rapist inadvertently threw out evidence as well, according to police.
Capacete is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 9 on felony sodomy by means of force, oral copulation and sexual penetration by foreign object. In the meantime, he's being held at Orange County Jail without bail.
Besides the latest rap, the Brink's of Garden Grove employee might have had trouble explaining away one tidbit to interviewers for a police force. The Orange County Register reports Capacete pleaded guilty in 2009 to misdemeanor engaging and agreeing to engage in prostitution, which brought him 10 days in jail, three years probation and an AIDS test.
The hits may keeping coming. If you've been the victim of this guy or know someone who has, phone Santa Ana Police Detective M. Judson at 714.245.8378 or Detective R. Perez at 714.245.8379. Tips are also solicited by OC Crime Stoppers at 855.TIP.OCCS or online at occrimestoppers.org.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.